New Jersey's Byron Scott Named Coach of NBA's East All-Stars

[MFFL]

Here's the link

Fri, 25 Jan 2002, 11:40pm EST
New Jersey's Byron Scott Named Coach of NBA's East All-Stars
By Scott Soshnick

New York, Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey's Byron Scott will coach the Eastern Conference in next month's National Basketball Association All-Star game, the first coach in franchise history to earn the honor, the league said.

Coaches are determined based on their teams having the best winning percentage in their conference through Sunday's games.

The Nets clinched the top winning percentage in the Eastern Conference last night after the Milwaukee Bucks lost to Seattle.

Scott is in his second season with the Nets, who have a 29-13 record, three more wins than they had all of last season.

The All-Star game is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Philadelphia.

The Western Conference coach hasn't been determined yet. Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota and San Antonio can still have the best winning percentage.

Sacramento's Rick Adelman, whose Kings have the best record in the league, isn't eligible because he coached the West All-Star team last year.

All-Star starters for both conferences will be announced tomorrow.

[MFFL]

I put this in the wrong forum. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

With Minnesota's loss tonight, the Mavs have the 2nd best record in the West. Since Adelman isn't eligible this year, Nellie is the current frontrunner for the coach of the West All-Stars.

[MavsFanFinley]

Will Nelson coach if he's the winner?

That article in the DMN the other day didn't make it sound like he wanted to coach the game since he has a previous engagment. Here's the article?

(This isn't the one I was referring to, but it says the same thing really.)

Nellie says he's busy for All-Star weekend

Don Nelson has said that the number of Mavericks that make the All-Star team will be determined by how good the Mavericks' record is. Of course, if the Mavericks' record is really good, Nelson could be joining in the festivities.

By Sunday, he could learn that he is the Western Conference's coach for the All-Star Game. The honor is given to the conference leader, but Sacramento's Rick Adelman is ineligible because he coached the game last season.

That leaves Minnesota, the LA Lakers, the Mavericks and San Antonio battling for the West's coaching spot. Minnesota and coach Flip Saunders hold a slight edge, with a magic number of two before the Sunday cut-off.

Nelson said he already has plans for All-Star weekend – including giving one of his homes in New Hampshire to the Catholic Church – and already has coached the game in 1992.

"Give it to Flip," Nelson said. "I'd rather let someone who hasn't coached it do it."

[Hoopsmeister]

For Nellie to coach at the All-Stars, Dallas would need to win their game tomorrow night and the Lakers would need to lose tonight against the Spurs or Sunday against Philadelphia

If LA wins both their games and Dallas wins theirs, then Dallas will be half-a-game ahead of LA, but LA will have the better winning percentage, by .004, because they have played fewer games, and Jackzen will coach.

[Hoopsmeister]

MFF, I'm sure that Nellie, like most long-term coaches in the league, would honestly prefer not to coach it, but its not an optional thing. Players and coaches need a real excuse (like injury) to get out of it without big fines.

[MFFL]

I think that the Dallas area is All-Star hungry. Most of the stars that have made the team more than a couple of times see the game as more of a hassle than an honor (they want to be NAMED to the team, but they don't want to play). Dallas is an exception - the players want to be on the team because they've never went before. Nellie has done it a few times and he'd rather have the time off.